Russia can give no more ground on key trade liberalisation issues hampering talks on its entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a Russian negotiator was quoted by Reuters on Wednesday. Moscow will stand firm against demands that it let foreign banks open branches in Russia and raise domestic energy prices to world levels, Russian delegation member Alexei Likhachev told Reuters in Moscow by telephone from the latest round of WTO talks in Geneva. "A series of issues ... primarily free access to the market in services, that are on the agenda remain unresolved," said Likhachev. "There are conditions beyond which we cannot go." Russia is the biggest economy outside the 148-country trade body and accession would be seen as a vote of confidence after a run of discouraging signals for investors in the Russian market. The European Union has given the nod to Russia's WTO entry but sealing a deal with the United States is seen as the biggest obstacle to wrapping up talks by Russia's target date of the end of this year. --More 2158 Local Time 1858 GMT
